Global Plastic Waste Report

Problem Introduction

• Plastic waste is a growing threat to both land and marine ecosystems.
• Many countries generate high levels of plastic but lack efficient recycling systems.
• Coastal regions are especially vulnerable to plastic leakage into oceans.
• We aim to identify key risk factors and regional disparities in plastic waste patterns.

Dataset Description

Dataset: Plastic Waste Around the World

Coverage: - This dataset includes data for 165 individual countries

Key Variables:

• Total plastic waste generated (in metric tonnes)

• Per capita plastic waste (in kilograms)

• National recycling rate (in percentage)

• Coastal plastic waste risk level

Source: The dataset is retrieved from a publicly available GitHub repository called Pranu580 that compiles plastic waste statistics from multiple global environmental datasets.

Methods

• Data cleaning with janitor, filtering missing values
• Binned recycling rate into Low, Medium, High (using quantiles)
• Derived population estimates and waste-per-person metrics
• Grouped by coastal risk and recycling category

Top 10 Countries by Per Capita Waste

Figure Shown: Horizontal bar chart

• Countries: Iceland, Malta, Cyprus, Palau, etc.
• High per capita waste in tourist-heavy nations
• Color-coded by recycling category (green, orange, red)

Waste vs. Recycling Rate

Figure Shown: Horizontal bar chart

• Scatter plot with linear trend line
• Weak inverse relationship: more waste often correlates with lower recycling
• Key insight: High waste ≠ High recycling